Beat Of The Drum
by Eryis
Summary: Music can do many things. It can fill a void you didn't know existed. It can help block out the rest of the world. It can bring people together. For Marco Bodt and Natsu Dragneel, music did all of that and so much more. For their lives together started with the beat of a drum.
1. Chapter 1 - The Countdown

**Chapter One - The Countdown**

"Guess I better get warmed up, huh?"

Natsu leapt up from the small incline of dirt he was sitting on, cracking the muscles in his back as he got used to being in an upright position. He, along with his bandmates, had been leaning against a steep hill for nearly half an hour as they watched the bonfire roar and illuminate the darkness of the November sky. After admiring the flickering red flames for so long in exactly the same position, he had gotten a little bit stiff.

He drew his eyes away from the hypnotic fire to look at his bandmates, all of whom had made a sound of approval without seeming to care about what he'd said. Laxus, the electric guitarist, was texting his boyfriend; Loke, the pianist, was sketching some girl he found attractive so he could use the drawing as a conversation starter; and Gray, their singer, was just looking at the fire and sipping a cup of beer.

"See you in there then." Natsu chuckled. "Don't get too close to the fire Gray. A cold bastard like you, you might melt."

With a cackle, Natsu began to jog away. He narrowly avoided the plastic cup half full of beer that had been thrown at him. He was half tempted to make a comment about how dangerous it was to throw alcohol with a big-ass bonfire around, but he was in a hurry.

Natsu's band had been hired to play at the towns Bonfire Night celebrations at the local rugby club. After the fireworks display had ended, they were to supply music in the clubhouse which, in situations like this, doubled up as a bar. It was a way for the rugby club to entice people to stay after the fireworks and buy more drinks. But Natsu wasn't going to complain, the money wasn't too bad and any publicity was appreciated.

Sadly, Natsu was the drummer. Meaning he would have to warm up before he played, a full gig was basically a workout. This was sad because Natsu had always loved fireworks and the warmup, if he didn't stat it soon, would make it so he couldn't watch any of the display at all.

He jogged up the stairs and into the bar, opening the door and walking towards the corner where the band's instruments had been set up. He crouched down in front of a black bag and pulled out a pair of metal drumsticks, sitting himself on the cushioned stool in front of his drum set. He played a little five second track that allowed him to hit every drum of the set; he always did this to make sure they were all the correct distance from his stool. The snare was a bit close…

"Come on, you asshole." He mumbled under his breath as he moved it.

After setting the drums in a way that pleased him, Natsu cracked his knuckles. He glanced around and checked the bar was empty, then grinned and threw the drumsticks in the air, catching them with a smirk. He knew it was stupid, but he enjoyed doing it.

Without wasting any more time, Natsu began to slam the sticks against the drums. He was playing a little indie song with a fast tempo and a killer drum solo at the end. It was always the song he played first when warming up, it hyped him more than any other song he knew. He had committed it to muscle memory and could play it with his eyes closed, which he was currently doing.

Fully involved with the music, Natsu was at peace. At that moment, he was made up of two sensations: the sliding of the drumsticks through his fingers and the powerful sounds his actions were causing. The world was his drums and the music that they were making. The sound was an extension to who he was, a sensation that he had yet to tire of. He doubted he ever would, playing his instrument was completely exhilarating.

Slowly, he came to a stop. The song ended with a gentle fade out on the snare, during which he opened his eyes and looked towards the roof while panting. It had been a couple of days since he last played, so he may have gone all out in excitement.

When the slight ringing in his ears died down and his panting had calmed to an inaudible level, the drummer's sensitive ears picking up a small tinny sound coming from the room. He grabbed for his small towel to wipe away the layer of sweat that had formed across his face. After that, he looked around to see where the tinny music was coming from.

His eyes settled in the corner. A man was sitting at one of the tables, wearing earplugs that were blasting music directly into his ears at a very high volume. He was looking at Natsu, however shot his gaze to the table the moment Natsu looked back at him.

The drummer frowned and stood up from the stool, placing the towel back in his black bag. He cautiously walked over to the man, who was still staring intently at the table he was sitting at. As Natsu got closer, he could make out more of the music that should be deafening the man. It was some loud, summer anthem which Natsu couldn't name. He knew it had been popular, though. He placed his hand on the man's shoulder with a wide grin.

"Hey, you okay?" He spoke loudly.

When the man looked up, he was smiling what looked like a guilty smile. He slowly removed his headphones and paused the song on his phone. But Natsu didn't notice that. He noticed how damn handsome the man was.

His face was chiselled, showing no sign of any fat. His soft and silky looking brown hair was parted at the centre, a style very few people could pull off. His brown eyes were all chocolatey and warm, very friendly. But his most attractive feature was definitely the sea of freckles that covered his cheeks, which were shamelessly hot and cute at the same time. Natsu felt his stomach flutter ever so slightly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare." The guy began. "You just looked so into it and... sorry."

"I don't care about that." Natsu grinned widely. When the man's face relaxed, he looked even more handsome. "I was just wondering why you're here and not outside, we don't go on for a while. Name's Natsu, by the way."

"I'm Marco." The brunette smiled. "And I heard you playing, so I came in to get a table before they fill up. You can never be too careful, right?" Marco chuckled. He realised how bad his lie was so spoke before Natsu could start. "You were really good, by the way."

That certainly wasn't a lie. The drumming was what enticed Marco into the room and he definitely had enjoyed watching Natsu play. He seemed like he belonged behind a drum kit. The relaxed and content face was very attractive. Not to mention his cheek bones, and smile, and his weirdly cute hair.

 _And he's talking_.

"Glad you liked it." Natsu chuckled. "But are you really gonna be sitting in here while the fireworks are goin' on. Kinda defeats the point of coming, doesn't it, if you're sitting listening to music?"

Marco rubbed the back of his neck slightly, averting his gaze as Natsu pulled out a chair and sat down. Natsu didn't push his question, but Marco glanced up to see that he was still looking at him with confusion.

"I'm, erm, not the biggest firework fan." He smiled awkwardly, noticing Natsu's confused frown. "I don't like the noise and you can never predict when the next one's going to go off. It stresses me out." He sighed, feeling silly and childish for admitting that to the drummer. "I was hoping to stay in here and block out the noise. Do you mind?"

"Nah, you're fine." Natsu grinned, not shaken by Marco's admission about not liking fireworks. It was understandable, Natsu's sensitive ears weren't overly fond of them when he was a kid. But the drumming had gotten him used to loud sounds. "Your music was pretty loud, though. Ain't that bad for your ears?"

"Probably." Marco smiled guiltily. "But, it's just for half an hour, right? Can't be that bad, can it?" With the questions, it was obvious Marco wasn't sure of his words.

Natsu thought for a moment before clicking his fingers. He scrambled off the chair and towards the black bag he kept behind his drum kit. After rummaging through it for a few moments, he fished out a pair of silver noise cancelling headphones. They were slightly tattered but still worked as well as they had when Natsu first brought them.

He jogged back towards Marco and, perhaps without thinking, he placed the headphones over Marco's ears and tapped him on the top of his head. He sat back down and grinned at the brunette, who chuckled at him and slid the headphones around his shoulders.

"These are…"

"Noise cancelling headphones. They, well, cancel noise. But don't deafen ya with Sia or whoever you were listening to." Natsu grinned.

"It was Taylor Swift." Marco grinned slightly.

"Normie."

"Hipster." Marco retorted immediately, laughing slightly at Natsu's exaggerated hurt expression. "Are you sure I can borrow these? Why do you even have them?"

"Sensitive ears." Natsu grinned. "My ear doctor says I have to wear them when I'm playing during practice so I don't go deaf when I'm old. But I don't have to wear 'em when I'm doing a gig 'cause it looks kinda stupid. So, you can use 'em all you want."

Marco smiled at the gesture and slid them over his ears again, they were comfortable enough and they did seem to block out the sound coming from outside in a less ear destroying way than his headphones would. Content, he slid them off and smiled widely at Natsu; he had expected to spend most of the night alone, so it was nice to spend time with the kind stranger. Even if Natsu went back and played his drums for the rest of the night, Marco would be okay with it.

Truth be told, he had been dreading this night. Being forced to spend an entire night around things that actively scared him wasn't desirable, but he couldn't get out of it no matter how much he tried. And he most certainly had tried.

"So, you hate fireworks, right?" Natsu questioned. "So, you're here because?"

"Well, I play here. When it's used for rugby, I mean." Marco smiled. "Last season I managed to scrape into being the star player. So, I'm kinda the guest of honour. Which I feel like I'm not doing a great job at."

Natsu looked Marco up and down. Stature wise, he could easily see him as a rugby player. He was quite strong in a muscular aspect but not overly buff, so he could probably run down a field pretty quick. What Natsu couldn't imagine, however was Marco covered in dried blood and mud, in the middle of a scrum or aggressively tacking a larger man to get the egg-ball-thing. He seemed far too nice for that. But, Marco had no reason to lie about this so he wasn't going to question it.

"Couldn't _tackle_ your way out of it then? No teammates to _pass the ball_ to?" Natsu was grinning ear to ear, Marco laughing with a shake of the head. "One more. One more. You sure you gave every tactic a _try_?"

"They were all forced and abysmal." Marco's statement didn't stop Natsu's grin. If anything, it got wider. "And no, sadly I couldn't. The free drinks and burgers are pretty nice, though."

"Lucky." Natsu whined. He'd been drooling over those damn burgers all night.

"You're not missing out on much. They're not that good." Marco lied. Natsu obviously didn't believe him. "I'll see if I can get you one when you've finished playing, as a thanks for the headphones."

"You don't have to do that." Natsu chuckled. "Well, you do now, but you didn't have to before you said that." The drummer checked the wall mounted clock, glancing back to Marco with a smile. "It's just turned nine, so you might wanna put your headphones on."

Marco also checked the clock and almost immediately slid the headphones on, smiling softly at Natsu in thanks. Natsu stood up and pointed to himself, jerking his head towards the drum kit and making a small drumming gesture. Marco seemed to understand what he was saying and widened his smile, Natsu seeing this as permission to get back to his drumming.

From the corner of his eye, Natsu could see a pink firework fly upwards into the sky. He absentmindedly looked as it reached its maximum height and exploded into the air in a spectacular display of colours. His eyes flittered over to Marco, whose body language was closed off and he had a small grimace on his face.

Deciding he could put back his drumming for a few more moments, he turned back to face Marco fully. He mouthed 'you okay?' while pointing to Marco and giving a thumb-up with a questioning expression. Marco replied with a wary expression and a 'so-so' shake of the hand. Natsu frowned; he sometimes forgot that the headphones weren't the highest quality. Whenever he wore them, he had the sound of his drumming to block out the rest of the world, so he'd gotten used to the idea that they worked perfectly. Marco obviously had other ideas.

With a friendly smile, Natsu motioned for Marco to follow him and go towards the drum kit. When Marco didn't seem to understand what he was saying, Natsu chuckled and rolled his eyes as he approached the freckled rugby player. He grabbed him by the upper arm, quite a strong upper arm, and slowly dragged Marco towards the drum kit himself. He patted the man's strong bicep as he flinched at another firework.

"You really hate them, don't ya." He said quietly, chuckling slightly. He motioned for Marco to remove the headphones. He made sure to smile gently, hoping it would encourage Marco to do what he wanted. Slowly, the rugby player removed them. "I thought I could help drown out the fireworks by playing a song you know, that way you'll know what's gonna happen and it won't shock ya."

"That could work." Marco said slowly. "Erm, do you know Run Boy Run? Kinda obsessed with it right now."

"And I'm the hipster?" Natsu chuckled. "And no, I don't. Sorry."

"No, it's okay. Do you know-" Marco stopped suddenly when another firework exploded. His expression was another grimace, this time his eyes significantly wider.

"Okay, hold on. Look at this, the bands repertoire." Natsu leant down and took out a small list of songs that he knew how to play. He also handed Marco a pencil. "Tick off all the songs you know and I'll play 'em until the displays over."

"Are you sure? Its half an hour!"

"Don't underestimate me, freckles?" Natsu playfully flexed his arm and twizzled the drumsticks around his fingers. He thought about tossing them into the air and catching them again, but didn't. "C'mon, which of 'em d'you know."

Natsu sat back down on the stool and continued to twizzle the metal drumsticks around his fingers as Marco read through the songs he could play and ticked off the ones he knew. After a moment, Marco handed him back the repertoire and leant on the wall behind the drum kit. Natsu noticed that Marco had slid on his headphones again; his slightly messy hair was kinda cute. But that wasn't a priority, because a whirling was coming from outside and an explosion was soon to follow.

After glancing down the list of ticked songs, Natsu's hands began to swiftly move and slam against the drums again in the tune of 'Pompeii' by Bastille. It started out a little slow and repetitive, but soon the song got into its stride and Natsu found himself in the moment again.

The time, unlike before, the music wasn't his whole existence. Now, the freckled sportsman leaning on the wall behind him was just as important as the music he was playing. It was always the same when he had an audience. He didn't play for himself, he played for the audience and wanted to give them a good show. And when the audience consisted of people like Marco, he made sure to give them a hell of a good show!

As the song continued, Natsu got more and more into the beat. He subconsciously got louder and louder, banging his head to the song. The band played this a lot, it was a pretty big crowd pleaser, and Natsu had really grown to appreciate it.

Marco was slowly nodding his head to the beat alongside Natsu, eyes closed as he tried to lose himself in the music. He could still hear the sound of the explosions if he lost focus, but as he kept his attention focused on the song they explosions faded into nothingness. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and looked down to Natsu. He nearly laughed with what he saw.

Shamelessly, Natsu was shouting out the lyrics in time to the song. He wasn't loud enough for Marco to hear with the headphones on, but that only added to Marco's want to laugh. He couldn't help it, the sight of him singing with so much effort but no sound coming out was hilarious!

This continued for about another minute until curiosity got the better of him. The chorus was coming up soon and the urge to hear Natsu's singing voice was getting higher and higher. Slowly, with a wince at the sudden shift in volume, Marco removed the headphones just in time for the chorus to start.

"And if ya close your eyes, does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all!"

His singing was actually quite good. It wasn't well trained but he could carry a note well and knew how to keep control of his pitch. Now focusing on both the loud drumming and the singing coming from Natsu's lips, Marco allowed the headphones hand loosely around his neck. He was enamoured by the music and the speed in which Natsu could play the instrument.

Marco couldn't keep his eyes off Natsu until the song ended. Natsu panted slightly as he glanced over to the clipboard containing the list filled with the song's that they both knew. As he picked out the next song, he caught a glimpse of Marco in the window's reflection. He immediately noticed that the man had removed the headphones, meaning he almost definitely had heard Natsu's singing. The drummer flushed slightly at the thought, but he turned around and grinned at the freckled man widely, mischief in his eyes.

"We're duetting this time, asshole." He grinned good naturedly.

Before Marco had any space to argue, Natsu began to play 'Titanium' by David Guetta. He began to belt out the lyrics, noticing that Marco hadn't joined in with him. He turned his head and looked directly at Marco, who was incredibly impressed that he could play a song and sing it while not even looking at the drum kit.

Eventually, Marco broke down under the gaze and began to sing with Natsu. It was quiet and shy at first, but the further the song went on, the more Marco felt himself drawn in by Natsu's enthusiasm and found himself getting louder and louder.

This continued for the rest of the fireworks display. They slowly made their way down the list of songs that they both knew, singing loudly and without restraint. Marco seemed to have completely forgotten about the fireworks occurring outside. He was consistently amazed by the skills Natsu showed with the drums, acting as though he didn't even need to think about what he was doing. It was amazing.

"I think." Natsu panted after they finished the seventh song he had played, his face now drenched in sweat. "That the show might be over. That was pretty fun, right?"

"Yeah, it really was." Marco was also breathless, though less so than Natsu. "Thanks for saving my night."

"No worries. What I'm here for." He grinned. "But I better be getting that burger after the show. Or I'll hunt you down and shove a drumstick somewhere a drumstick doesn't belong."

"Don't worry, I'll get you one." Marco chuckled. "You sure that's all you want, 'cause you really did make this a lot more enjoyable than I thought tonight could be. I was really dreading coming here, so thanks for that."

"Honestly, I loved it. So, you don't need to thank me." Natsu grinned. "Could you pass me my towel please."

Natsu sent a thankful smile towards Marco when he took the towel from the taller man. He wiped his face clean of the sweat that had formed and relaxed, setting the drumsticks down and breathing out an exhausted sigh. He was starting to understand why some rock drummers performed without their shirts…

"So, I know this is a long shot, but d'you wanna maybe do this again?" Natsu smiled hopefully at Marco. "Maybe at a karaoke bar or something. As a kinda date, if that's okay." Natsu continued to speak, not giving Marco a second. "You don't have to. You're probably not into guys but my dad says there's no point sitting around if you like someone. So Yeah..."

"Erm." Marco thought for a moment, before smiling widely. "Yeah, I'd like that. A lot. But maybe leave karaoke for a later time, the third date or something."

"Third date. Pretty confident in yourself, aren't ya?" Natsu cackled, the butterflies in his stomach fluttering around madly. "Out of interest, would what we just did count as a date? And would sharing a burger in an hour count as a date as well. Because then we'd be doing karaoke sooner than you think."

"Don't push your luck." Marco chuckled, freckles hidden by a blush he didn't realise had formed.

"Fine, but if you're making me wait then when we do it, I want you to go all out. I mean screaming loudly, dance moves and making total asses of ourselves." Natsu grinned, smile widening when Marco nodded with a laugh. "Ha, you'll regret agreeing to that."

"Oh, I'm sure." Marco chuckled. "Should we exchange phone numbers?"

"Yeah, that'll be great. Oh! Or or or. You could wait until the gig is over and ask me for an autograph. If you ask nicely, I might give you my number with my signature."

"Seriously?" Marco laughed, taken in with the puppy eyes Natsu was plastering on his face. "Fine, if you're gonna be cute about it."

Natsu fought the urge to punch the air. He had a hot date (or three hot dates) with a lovely rugby player who he'd sang with. And the afore mentioned rugby player was gonna ask for his autograph. Natsu knew it was a stupid thing to be happy about, but the drummer never gave out his autograph. So, it was nice, even if Marco was just humouring him.

"And hey, if you play your cards right who knows what could happen." Natsu teased. "You could be my first groupie."

"Maybe. But if that happens, you need to be my first cheerleader."

"I'm good with that. I could pull off a skirt." Natsu grinned.

The two continued to flirt with each other for a few more minutes, never once breaking eye contact or wearing anything less than a genuine, beaming smile. Unbeknown to them, the bar was slowly filling with people who were wanting drinks, music and, most likely, a place to get warm while the bonfire was put out.

Both men were snapped out of their little world when they heard the sound of Laxus' guitar began to sound when he tuned it. They both blushed and finally broke eye contact, laughing slightly when they realised they were far from alone anymore.

"I should sit down." Marco smiled, still blushing. "Don't wanna get in your way."

"Yeah. You better be back when we're done. Cause that drumstick threat is still out there." Natsu grinned, slightly shyly.

"Oh, well I don't want to risk it. Guess I need to stay."

"Guess you do."

The two continued to smile at each other for a couple more moments, neither wanting to break eye contact for a second time. Eventually, Marco gave Natsu a tiny wave and walked away, unable to stop himself glancing over his shoulder and beaming at the drummer. Natsu felt his heart lurch slightly when Marco took a seat at one of the tables in the front row, both glancing at each other when they had the time.

"You made a friend then," Laxus mumbled as he played with the little lever thing on his guitar. Natsu had no idea what it did, but it seemed important. "So, who is he?"

Natsu rubbed the back of his neck. He knew he and Marco hadn't been subtle and that his bandmates would definitely have some comments about it, but he hardly expected it would be Laxus to bring it up. He thought it would be Gray making teasing comments or Loke supporting him with statements like 'If you don't act fast I will.' But no, blunt Laxus was the initiator apparently.

"Well." He spoke quietly, but was still beaming. "If I'm lucky, he might be the future Mr Dragneel."


	2. Chapter 2 - The Rythm

**Chapter Two - The Rythm**

With a spring in his step, Natsu walked across the grass and towards the rugby pitch in the heavy beating rain. The weather didn't do anything to his beaming smile, a feature that had basically been plastered across his face permanently for the last two weeks. One man in particular was to blame for this never-ending smile, Mr Marco 'Freckle-Face' Bodt.

Over the last fortnight, the drummer and rugby player had been on two dates. The first started as a trip to the movies, but the subpar film and lack of talking made them change their mind and spend the rest of the night at a twenty-four-hour sushi bar. The second date was at a bowling alley with as many burgers, flirtatious comments and romantic ball guiding clichés they could fit in the time it took for them to finish two games. Natsu was, as Gray so elegantly phrased it, completely head over heels for the brunette.

Today was their third date and, keeping to his word, Marco had agreed to let Natsu take him to a karaoke bar. Natsu decided to keep his word and make complete and total asses of the both of them.

The drummer walked up to the white metal bar that cordoned off the rugby pitched and leant on it, scanning the crowd of people until his eyes settled on Marco. He was shocked by the sight, because that certainly wasn't the calm and gentle Marco that had accompanied him on his date; he liked the Marco in front of him just as much.

The freckled man was soaking wet, his white rugby kit covered in the wet mud of the pitch. The second the ball was passed to him, he was sprinting up the pitch and past Natsu with a determined expression. Natsu let out a low, impressed whistle when Marco sprinted past him, his freckled jaw was clenched and harsh eyes looked pretty hot, made better with the knowledge of how soft and kind they usually were.

"You're Natsu right, the guy Marco's being goin' on dates with?" A voice said from beside him.

Natsu turned to see a guy slimmer than him but about the same height, with a weird hairstyle with two colours and an undercut. He was leaning on the bar in the same way Natsu was, with a neutral expression on his face.

"Yeah, I am. D'you know 'im." Natsu spoke hesitantly. He knew it was weird to think, but Marco was good enough to have a few insane exes around. You could never be too careful.

"I was his roommate in university." The man said, turning slightly. "Still fiends with him now."

"Oh, you're Jean right! Marco mentioned you last week, he said…" Natsu realised that Marco's story involving Jean might be a bit embarrassing for the man. "Nothing. He said nothing. Nice to meet you!"

When the drummer presented his hand for Jean to shake, the other man did so with a small amount of hesitance. Natsu was beaming from ear to ear and it seemed genuine. Jean had a hard time finding people friendlier than Marco, but the freckled man seemed to have done the impossible and found one.

"You okay?" Natsu questioned. "I'm not gonna bite. Not like a…" Again, he nearly mentioned the embarrassing story Marco had told him. The story involved Jean getting bitten by a squirrel. To avoid any awkwardness, he said the first animal that had come to his mind. "Dragon?"

"No, I'm fine. The last couple times I met someone Marco was dating they got all defensive and jealous around me."

"Kinda stupid." Natsu snorted. "You only get jealous if ya think someone's gonna cheat, right? He doesn't really strike me as the kinda person to cheat, so no need to get jealous?"

Natsu caught sight of a small smile on Jean's face as he turned around and went back to looking at the rugby game. The drummer frowned slightly in confusion, wondering if he had just passed some sort of test the other man had set for him. Deciding that it wasn't worth worrying about, Natsu sent his gaze back onto the match to see a scrum had formed in the middle of the field. He couldn't spot Marco, so he was probably on the other side of the mass of men.

There wasn't long left in the game. Marco had told him when the game was planned to end and said he should come a little while after so he wouldn't have to wait around while he changed. Natsu had ignored this, coming earlier so he could watch Marco play for a few minutes; he didn't mind having to wait around in the rain. He quite liked the rain really.

"I think he must really like you." Jean commented, still watching the game.

"You do? Really!" Natsu beamed at the comment, blushing slightly when he realised how loud he was being. "I mean, he does? What makes you say that?"

"Because." Jean chuckled. "He's been blabbering about you so much that I know you enough to expect a response like that."

Natsu blushed at the thought that Marco had been blabbering about him. Natsu himself had been doing his fair share of babbling about Marco to his band. He'd been doing so much that Gray and Loke had grown sick of him, Laxus was in a relationship so understood where all the excitement had come from. The thought that Marco had been talking about him as much as he had been talking about Marco really made his stomach go all gooey.

"So you really think there's a future in it for us. Or you think Marco might want that?" Natsu was trying not to sound too needy and creepy. He suspected he wasn't doing a good job of it. But Jean seemed to be amused by it.

"Yeah, I do." He chuckled. "That what you want, something that lasts, not just a bit of fun with him?"

"I suppose, I kinda wanna have both though. Like, have loads of fun with him in a relationship that lasts." Natsu smiles. "Like, I never got why having fun in a relationship was supposed to mean it wasn't gonna last. Surely if you're making someone laugh and still in love with 'em, you're doing something right. Humours harder than romance, right?"

"What d'you mean?" Jean asked, deciding not to mention the fact Natsu had brought up love and instead to just smile about it.

"Well, when most people do romance, it seems like they're copying people. Like roses! Everyone knows they're romantic, that's why they get them. If you get someone a rose every day for the rest of their life, its romantic and all, but it's just something that everyone can do. You can't make someone laugh for the rest of their life with one joke. You need to really know the person and get them. Making someone happy with a laugh seems more personal than it does with a flower or box of chocolates. That's just me."

Jean glanced at Natsu as he spoke, somewhat impressed. All of Marco's blabbering had been about how happy Natsu made him and how much fun they had together. Jean was impressed with the thoughtfulness behind all the jokes.

"I still like romance, though. And I really wanna spoil the hell out of Marco." Natsu continued with a smile. "I just wanna make sure that, when I do romantic stuff, it'll be romantic for Marco Bodt, not for any random person on the internet. That doesn't make me sound like a bastard, does it? I don't wanna sound like I won't love it if Marco gets me a rose or anything. Aw crap."

Realising that he had probably made himself seem like an ungrateful romance snob, Natsu groaned and slammed his head against the metal bar. Jean laughed when he heard a tiny 'ow' come from the other man. He put a hand on Natsu's shoulder and grinned.

"You don't sound like a bastard. You sound like a guy Marco should be dating." Jean grinned. "And the game's nearly over. Who knows when you'll see your _boyfriend_ all covered in the rain and mud wearing tight shorts next."

He blushed. He and Marco hadn't actually discussed if they were boyfriends yet or not. So far, they were content with the fact they were dating. But, if Natsu was being honest, he wanted that to change by the end of the night. He was desperate to be able to say he was in a relationship with Marco!

He didn't mention anything about this, though. Instead, he peaked up from the metal bar and watched the rest of the match. Marco did look good in the rain…

A couple of minutes later a shrill whistle blew, ending the game. Marco's team had scraped a victory, their supporters cheered and the players of both teams got seemed to relax. The opposing team all trudged over towards the changing rooms while Marco's team relished in their victory. It wasn't long before Marco's eyes landed on Natsu and Jean, he was jogging towards them both a moment later.

"Hey," He panted, looking at Natsu with an exhausted smile. "I didn't think you were coming until later. Hi!" He went to hug Natsu, but stopped himself. "I shouldn't. Covered in mud, don't wanna get it on you."

"I don't mind." Natsu grinned.

"But I do. You're looking good." Marco smiled, looking Natsu up and down. "What did you think? Of the game, I mean."

"Didn't realise you could be such a badass." Natsu chuckled. "It was fun to watch. It'll be even more fun to watch when you explain to what the hell was going on!"

Marco laughed loudly, rubbing the back of his neck at the 'badass' compliment. He knew his face was already red because of the exercise and that Natsu couldn't see it, but he was blushing slightly. It wasn't only because of the compliment, Natsu looked damn good in a long coat.

"I'll record a game one day and talk you through what's happening." Marco promised with a smile. He looked to Jean, who was standing there with a teasing smile. "So, you've met. You got along well, right? Nobody was being rude, right _Jean_?"

"Hey," Jean put his hands up in mock surrender, his grin widening. "Have a little faith in him Marco, he wasn't rude."

Natsu snorted at the half-hearted and exhausted glare that Marco sent his friend. "I think we got on well, right?"

"Yeah, we did." Jean grinned. "I'll leave you two alone so you can nearly hug and then flirt with each other."

Natsu and Marco watched as Jean jogged away and down towards the changing room building. They watched as he walked up to a guy with green hair, who Natsu recognised as the guy who came on the pitch whenever someone got injured. Natsu watched in shock as they kissed, eyes glancing at Marco for a second. He hoped one day he and Marco could do that together.

And it was nice to know that rugby seemed to be pretty gay friendly; Natsu vaguely remembered that a famous Welsh rugby player was openly gay. It was also nice to see Marcos teammates didn't seem to care, they didn't so much as bat an eyelid as they walked past the kiss.

"I should probably go get showered and changed." Marco smiled. "Sorry for making you wait, I'll try get in the showers before anyone else."

"You don't need to rush." Natsu grinned. "Ain't goin' anywhere."

Marco grinned at that, feeling warm inside at that. He knew it was such a stupidly small thing to be happy about, but the fact Natsu was willing to stand out in the rain so Marco wasn't rude to his teammates did mean a lot. It was getting harder and harder to not hug Natsu, but he didn't want to cover the other man in mud.

"Still, I'll try and get out as soon as I can." Marco smiled. He bit his lip before leaning over the metal bar and placing his lips on Natsu's for a moment, pulling away with a wide smile. "See you in a sec. Bye."

As Marco jogged over to the changing block, Natsu placed his fingers on his lips and wiped off the small amount of mud Marco had left there. He was wearing the biggest, most content grin a man could possibly make.

Their first kiss! In the rain, no less!

 **-/-\\-**

"So, when he took the first bite, he went completely red and he couldn't stop fanning his mouth. He drank an entire carton of milk!"

"Oh, don't laugh, that's terrible."

Despite what he was saying, it was obvious that Marco was trying not to laugh. Natsu had been telling him about the time Gray bragged about how spicy food didn't affect him so the entirety of his band worked together to make the spiciest dish they possibly could to prove him wrong. The brunette had been grimacing as Natsu listed off the ingredients they put into the curry, though couldn't help but laugh at the mental image of someone reacting in the way Natsu had described.

The two men were walking down the streets of Magnolia, Marco considerable cleaner than he had been before showering. The rain had finally ended, the only remanence of it happening in their hair and respective coats. They weren't hurrying, deciding to enjoy the quiet streets as they walked to the karaoke bar.

"Don't feel too sorry for him. He got us all back eventually." Natsu chuckled. "And he was exaggerating. I finished the plate without drunning the whole can of coke."

"Seriously?" Marco laughed disbelievingly. "Because I remember what you put into it and I can make it for you, if you liked it so much?"

"Well, hehe, maybe I left a tiny bit on the plate." Natsu grimaced. He wasn't going to mention how similar his actual reaction was to Gray's. At least he lasted three forkfuls before he gave in, though!

"That's what I though." Marco smirked. "So, how'd he get you back?"

"Oh look, here we are." Natsu spoke loudly, ignoring the question and pointing towards the door to the karaoke bar. "What good timing."

Marco grabbed Natsu's hand and dragged him away from the door he was trying to enter, smiling. He looked down at Natsu, who was trying to avoid his eyes so he wouldn't have to tell a story where he was embarrassed. This tactic failed when Marco crabbed his cheeks and forced eye contact, smirking widely.

"Tell me, Natsu." Marco chuckled

"Don't wanna." Natsu's protest was muffled by the fingers puffing out his cheeks.

"You don't have to if you don't want to, I guess if it's embarrassing then I won't push it." Marco feigned understanding, but didn't remove his hands from Natsu's cheek. "I mean, you wouldn't make me do something embarrassing. For example, you would take me on a date where we would 'make asses out of ourselves' would you?"

Natsu glared at Marco's cocky smile for a moment, before sighing through his squished cheeks. He looked down slightly and murmured a small "Fine." Marco released him but didn't let him walk into the karaoke bar, where he would inevitably have an excuse made to not tell his story.

The brunette frowned when Natsu shuffled where he was and pulled his phone out of his inside pocket. He watched curiously as he opened it, pressed on the text messaging app and clicked on a certain conversation. The drummer showed Marco his screen and looked away with pink spreading onto his cheeks.

"He did this to my room." He mumbled.

Marco stifled a laugh at what he saw. Natsu's room was decorated with huge princess posters, a giant Elsa rug covering the floor, a bright pink lampshade, an old pink TV and a Disney bunk bed fit with a slide, ball pool and tower. The only signs that it was an adult man's bedroom were the brick style walls and the black wardrobes that were fitted into the walls and couldn't be replaced with a pink counterpart.

What was most amusing, however, was the fact the bed was occupied. Natsu was sleeping away, legs hanging off the bed he was too small for and hugging a plush teddy of Dory from Finding Nemo. Marco broke when he noticed that last detail, he burst out laughing.

"Shut up." Natsu whined. "It took weeks to get everything back to normal. And my dad came to visit before I got rid of the bed. He wouldn't stop laughing!"

Marco's laughing got louder when Natsu admitted that and the pink haired man couldn't help but join in. Marco's laugh was infection and, as pranks go, it was a pretty good one. Never let it be said that Natsu was the type to hold a grudge on someone."

"Why," Marco chuckled. "Why haven't you deleted the picture yet?"

"Gray's got this app on his phone that sends texts however often you want. He's sends it to me every day and said he won't stop until Christmas." Natsu whined.

"That's not too bad. It's only a couple of weeks." Marco sniggered.

"He said that a year and a half ago." Natsu pouted, making Marco burst into laughter again. "Yeah yeah, it's so so funny. Come on, I've embarrassed myself already so now it's your turn."

Nodding with a laugh, Marco allowed himself to be dragged away from the wall he was leaning on and into the karaoke bar. When he looked around, he saw that it was relatively busy and nearly everyone was looking at the stage. Currently, a teenage girl with a good voice was singing and everyone was being respectful. But, by the fact that the next person in the queue was dressed like Elvis in a costume his gut could barely fit in, Marco knew they didn't expect everyone who performed to be serious. Marco wasn't worried anyway, he knew Natsu wouldn't take him somewhere were their silly behaviour would be frowned upon.

The two walked over to a small table in the corner that was empty, sitting on the high stools and facing the stage as the teenager sung. On the table was a menu for both the drinks and all the songs available to sing. Natsu snatched the latter menu before Marco had a chance to look at it.

"Do I have any say on what I'm singing?" Marco asked, a worried grin on his face.

"Course you do. Just not the first song. That one's up to me." Natsu grinned, looking down at the list. His eyes practically sparkled when he saw one specific song. "And I think I just found it."

"Can I know what it is?"

"Nope. Not until we're just about to get on stage." Natsu kept the song list away from Marco so he couldn't sneak a peek at the options and guess what Natsu had planned for him. And it was a good plan. A really good plan!

Marco chose not to argue with him, shaking his head in defeat and picking up the drinks menu with a content smile. He was almost sure he'd regret not making any protests when he was on stage, singing whatever hellish song Natsu had picked out for him, but for now he was just going to let Natsu enjoy his fun and not worry too much.

After looking down the drinks list he decided that, to make sure he could make a total ass out of himself like Natsu wanted, he would have to be at least a little bit tipsy. He decided on what he was going to drink and placed the menu down on the table.

"If I'm gonna get through this, I'm gonna need a buzz." Marco said. "So, I think I'll have a strawberry daiquiri and two shots of tequila."

"Guess that's fair." Natsu chuckled. He noticed that Marco was reaching for his wallet, so hopped of the stool before he could do anything. "Back in a sec. My treat today, remember."

Natsu was at the bar, holding the song list in his right hand before Marco could say anything. The freckled man chuckled to himself and leant back in the stool, watching as the teenager finished the song she was singing. He clapped along with the rest of the bar as she walked back to her family, who were congratulating her on how well she had done.

Marco found his eyes glancing towards Natsu, who was leaning on the bar and speaking to the bartender while pointing at a song on the list. He smiled contently at the sight of the other man; he really was great. Marco often found relationships more stressful than enjoyable. There was too much pressure to pretend to be this perfect person that you could never be; in what other situation would you need to stop yourself from farting for such a long time? But Natsu never tried to be perfect, he was just being himself and it allowed Marco to do the same. Their time together was fun, carefree and just nice.

"You know, you're meant to be subtle when you check out my ass." Natsu teased, his return to the table snapping Marco out of his small trance. "We're third in the list, after the Elvis guy and some girls singing Taylor Swift. Try not to fangirl too much when you hear your idle."

Natsu cackled when Marco shoved him for his comment. The drummer sat back on the stool after moving it slightly closer to Marco. He smiled and looked back to the stage where the somewhat overweight Elvis impersonator was pacing in an Elvis like way. He seemed to be enjoying the cheers he got from the crowd, some of which came from Natsu.

"You're ridiculous." Marco laughed.

"Hell yeah." Natsu grinned proudly. "The guy said he'd bring our drinks over in a second."

"Sure." Marco smiled. "You enjoyed watching me play, then? Even if you didn't know what was going on."

"Yeah, it was great. Can definitely see why you got ranked star player." Natsu smiled with a small amount of pride for Marco, who blushed slightly. "And I know enough about rugby. Like, I know you mainly score by running past people and getting to the end of the field. I just don't know it all, like why you can sometimes get to kick the ball through the big 'H' of metal or what makes you get into a scrum."

"Oh, that's not too hard to understand. But I guess that's because I play it." Marco chuckled.

He began to explain some of the lesser known rules of rugby to Natsu as the Elvis impersonator began to sing; he had uncreatively chosen to sing 'Hound Dog' for the crowd. Natsu listened intently, trying to commit all of it to memory. This was a difficult task as Natsu found himself distracted by how passionately Marco was speaking. It was obvious that he really loved playing rugby, probably as much as Natsu loved playing the drums.

By the time 'Elvis' had finished his song, Natsu was looking at Marco's face with a small smile; god he was handsome. Marco looked up from the table where he was drawing typical manoeuvres with his fingers, blushing when he saw Natsu's expression. He chuckled nervously with a smile to match Natsu's.

The drummer, whose hands were also resting on the table, shifted slightly. He gently grazed his knuckles against Marco's. He glanced somewhat shyly at Marco before murmuring.

"You don't mind if I, y'know, hold it."

"No." Marco whispered. "No, I'd like that."

As the Taylor Swift girls took over the stage, Natsu placed his hand on top of Marcos. In turn, the freckled man intertwined their fingers together. They both didn't say anything, instead deciding to watch the new group as they began to sing, sitting hand in hand with slight blushed on their faces.

Half way through the song, which the drunk women were struggling through, the waiter came with the drinks Marco had wanted and a pint of lemonade that Natsu had ordered for himself. They both panicked slightly at how the man would react, but he had placed the tray of drinks on the table and was gone within a second. He couldn't have missed their hand holding, meaning he simply didn't care. It made them both feel more confident, relaxing slightly in their stools.

With a slight yawn, Natsu shuffled to the side of the stool and leant his head against Marco's shoulder. It was tentative at first, but when Marco didn't tense up he allowed himself to relax also. He smiled tiredly when Marco squeezed his hand.

"You tired?" Marco teased gently. "If you want, we can cancel our little performance and you can stay here?"

"In your dreams, Freckles." Natsu sighed tiredly. "Just recharging the batteries."

"Fine, but if you fall asleep I'm not going up there on my own."

"Sure sure." Natsu patted Marco's chest with his free hand to reassure him. He nuzzled Marco slightly, watching as the drunk girls stumbled around the stage as they badly sung their chosen song.

They two sat in silence as the performance ended, Marco feeling slightly nervous as they left the stage. He had finished the shots and was feeling a slight buzz going on, but it was still a bit nerve wracking. He had noticed that the bar left a couple minutes between acts so people could get drinks without missing anything.

When Natsu realised that they would soon be on stage, his head suddenly shot up from Marco's shoulder with a sudden burst of energy. He really wasn't kidding when he said he was charging his batteries. He sighed in defeat and smiled.

"Okay then." He chuckled. "What hell song have you got for me?"

"What if I don't wanna tell ya?" Natsu teased with a wide grin. "I guess you'll just have to wait for the announcement, wont ya?"

Marco rolled his eyes and leant back on his chair, unable to stop himself from smiling at how proud Natsu seemed about getting Marco to join him on singing. He could see the other man shuffling around in his seat, obviously very excited about the show they would be making; this just made Marco even more willing to make an ass out of himself on stage.

"Performing next," The voice over said, Marco sitting up in anticipation. "Natsu Dragneel and Marco Buttocks." Marco looked to Natsu with an expression that said 'Really?' Natsu grinned back. "They'll be singing an old classic. The Bohemian Rhapsody. "

Natsu's grin was ear to ear now as he dragged Marco out of his stool and towards the stage. Marco was wide eyed at the reveal of the song choice, snippets of the lyrics flying through his mind in quick succession. Natsu definitely had picked a song where it was impossible to keep any dignity while singing.

"You can't be serious?" He shook his head, still smiling.

"You might wanna keep quiet. Don't wanna lose your voice, it's a long song."

"I'm gonna kill you after this."

Natsu cackled, stepping onto the stage and taking the microphone off the DJ who handed it to him. Marco did the same, standing beside Natsu and looking down at the screen where the lyrics would be shown. He shook his head again in disbelief that he was actually going to do this, before glancing over to Natsu, lowering his microphone and speaking to him.

"Bet I can hit more notes than you can." He challenged, smirking slightly.

"You're on." Natsu grinned. "What're the stakes?"

"Loser has to ask the winner to be their boyfriend?" Marco suggested, stomach fluttering as he realised what he had said.

"Oh, hell yeah!"

Natsu grinned, heart hammering in his chest at the realisation that Marco had essentially asked him to make their relationship official. He raised the microphone to his mouth, sending Marco a sneaky wink as the music began to play. Marco returned the gesture, doing the same with his own microphone as the music hit its stride.

 _And so, they sang._


	3. Chapter 3 - The Chorus

**Chapter Three - The Chorus**

"And for dessert, devil's food cake made by yours truly."

Natsu licked his lips as Marco left the kitchen, holding a large and amazingly decorated chocolate cake on a glass stand. As he placed it down on the table, the intoxicating smell of the luxurious chocolate assaulted Natsu's senses and made his stomach growl in anticipation; which was unexpected as he had just devoured a salmon starter and roast dinner, all of which had been made by his boyfriend.

With a small chuckle, Marco quickly returned to the kitchen and brought a small serving jug of steaming custard. He placed it beside the cake and gestured to it, giving Natsu permission to begin. The drummer had picked up the serving knife without a moment's hesitation.

"Can't believe you cook _and_ bake." Natsu pouted as he cut himself an ambitiously large slice of the cake. "Always thought your manly, rugby hands were too lazy to work in a kitchen."

"Nope." Marco cut himself a smaller piece of the cake. "But for saying that, my manly, rugby hands won't be touching anything else for the rest of the day."

Natsu frowned in confusion, not understanding what Marco was alluding to. When he saw the grin on his boyfriend's face, the realisation hit him and he was leaning over the table to grab Marco's hands a moment later. Marco was threatening to avoid touching Natsu for the rest of the night! On their two-year anniversary no less! Unacceptable!

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Natsu exclaimed, kissing Marco's hands all over. "I love the manly rugby hands. Don't take them away from me. They'll ask questions! They'll miss me!"

Marco managed to drag his hands away from his boyfriend, an unholy mixture of laughing at his behaviour and gigging at the tickling sensation on his skin leaving the freckled man's lips. He was one moment away from snorting and refused to give Natsu any more ammunition for teasing him.

Satisfied that he had made his point and that Marco's hands wouldn't be avoiding him for the rest of the day, Natsu sat back in the chair and began to eat the cake, which he had drowned in custard. After taking one bite, his eyes all but bulged in surprise at how good the cake tasted. He looked at Marco with this expression of armament and happiness, swallowing the large bite before he started to speak again.

"It took ya two years to cook for me! D'you hate me and you're gonna torture me by never cooking again!" Natsu demanded, making Marco laugh again.

"No. It's just that, whenever we used to eat in, it was at your flat since mine was tiny, it didn't seem right barging into someone's kitchen and saying you want to cook. Especially when that person was raised by a chef." Marco smiled. "And you always look so happy when you're cooking, kinda like when you're drumming."

It was true, Natsu did enjoy cooking. If his band began to fail or he fell out of love with the drums, which he highly doubted would happen, cooking would be his go to career. He'd been trained by his step dad since he was a kid, so was pretty good in a kitchen. So was Marco, apparently.

"You know, we could make a kickass restaurant." Natsu said before taking another large bite of the cake. "You better cook more often. That ain't just _my_ kitchen, so no excuse."

Marco grinned and nodded taking another bite of the cake and watching as Natsu ate his own like a wild animal. It made his stomach flutter at how casual Natsu had mentioned their kitchen was theirs. The two had moved in together at their new apartment only yesterday and Natsu was already treating it like it was the norm. Perhaps it was because they'd already unpacked everything on their moving day, unwilling to do it on their anniversary or to have their new home cluttered by boxes for more than one day.

Deciding to stop staring at Natsu before he noticed, Marco looked down to his dessert and finished it off. Even with Natsu's significantly larger portion size, the drummer set his empty bowl to the side at almost the same time as Marco did.

"You can have some more, if you want." Marco offered.

"Later, maybe. Think if I eat any more I'll explode." Natsu patted his stomach to emphasise the point.

Nodding, Marco stood up and put a plastic cover over the cake. He picked up both discarded bowls and walked to the kitchen, not noticing Natsu follow him with his eyes. Wearing a frown, the drummer stood up and followed Marco into the other room, rolling his eyes when he saw the bowls put into a sink of hot, bubbly water. When he noticed Marco go to start washing the dishes, Natsu pushed off the wall he was leaning on and interrupted.

"Pay attention to me~" He whined loudly, wrapping his arms around Marco's waist.

Before the other man could argue his point, Natsu began to kiss him on the back of his neck. Marco began to laugh again, apparently his neck was also ticklish. Natsu used this opportunity to pull his boyfriend away from the kitchen so they could enjoy each other's company.

Deciding not to fight Natsu, Marco allowed himself to be pulled backwards until he found himself slouched on the leather sofa. It didn't take a moment for him to turn so he was looking at Natsu, quickly cupping his cheeks and kissing him softly. Natsu matched the pace immediately, wrapping his arms around Marco's shoulders. Their tongues bumped against each other as they pulled one another closer, eyes closing as they enjoyed nothing but the intimacy they shared with each other.

As they pulled away, Natsu batted away the string of saliva that had formed with his tongue. He chuckled slightly, leaning up and kissing Marco on the nose to get him blushing more than he already was. It worked.

"You promised me a magical evening. I know you didn't just mean the meal, so you're gonna stay out of that kitchen until we've done everything." Natsu demanded, though thought for a moment. "But if you were gonna start a foam fight, then we can go in. I'll kick your foamy ass!"

It was true that Marco had elected himself in charge of organising their anniversary celebrations. He had claimed that Natsu was always doing the big romantic gestures and that it was his turn. Natsu disagreed with the idea that Marco wasn't putting effort into their relationship and had happily listed off every nice, romantic thing Marco had done for him in their relationship. The rugby player had stayed adamant, Natsu eventually giving in and letting Marco take control. So far, the night had been great and Natsu was glad he let Marco win.

Marco shook his head and rested his forehead against Natsu's. "Didn't plan one, sorry." He whispered. "But I think a nightclub near here has a foam night. We can go when they do it, if you want."

Natsu grinned and nodded, shifting his position so he was leaning against Marco. He grabbed the rugby players hand and began to play around with his fingers mindlessly; a recent habit that he did whenever the two were lounging around doing nothing. Marco hadn't complained about it yet, so Natsu took it as permission to keep going.

"So," Natsu said, now giving Marco what felt like a massage on his hand. "When do we get to do the next thing?"

"In a couple minutes." Marco smiled. "I want your stomach to settle."

With a shrug and a nod, Natsu leant back and burrowed his head in the crook of Marco's shoulder. What they'd be doing that needed a settled stomach for, Natsu couldn't guess. But he didn't particularly want to, cuddling with Marco on the sofa was always something the drummer loved and he wouldn't ruin that with his confusion. Besides, Marco's romantic track record was flawless, so Natsu knew he'd enjoy whatever it was.

The two men stayed in their positions, enjoying the quietness for a few minutes before Marco untangled himself from Natsu's grasp. The rugby player pushed their coffee table to the side of the room without explanation, Natsu watching with quiet curiosity. It wasn't long before his curiosity got the better of him.

"Y'know, you could just tell me if you don't want me to put my feet on the table. Don't need to confiscate it." He pouted playfully.

"I wouldn't have to confiscate things if you followed the rules, Natsu." He put his hands on his hips, playing along with the joke. That faded quickly when he offered Natsu a hand to grab. "C'mon, romance time again."

Natsu grinned and took the hand, jumping up from the couch as standing beside his boyfriend. He watched as the freckled man walked over to their docking station and played around with his phone. Before he hit play on the song he had chosen, he turned to Natsu with a smirk. He presented his hand for Natsu to take again.

"Prepared to dance, Dragneel?"

"Anytime, Bodt."

At the same time Natsu took Marco's hand, the music began to play through their apartment. It wasn't long before Natsu recognised the song as 'Love to Love,' in which he grinned and stepped forward, Marco wrapping his arms around the drummer and guiding the impromptu dancing between them both.

A cackle left the drummers mouth as he was spun down Marco's arm, the rugby player catching him right at the end. With a distance between them, they both began to walk towards each other while shaking their hips in time with the song. The closer they got, the wider their smiled became.

Without any warning, Marco wrapped his arms around Natsu's lower waist, lifted him off the ground and began to spin him around the room. Laughing, Natsu looked down at his boyfriend during the manoeuvre. He wrapped his arms around Marco's shoulders, lifting his feet up slightly, caught up in the moment.

"Stop, I'm spinning like a top! We'll dance until we drop! But if I have my way~" Marco began to sing.

Now far apart again, they began to dance closer to each other. Natsu span around slowly, hips shaking in time to the music as Marco shimmied closer, pulling stupid poses as he went.

"Oh, I love to love." Natsu joined in, harmonising with Marco. "But my baby just loves to dance. He wants to dance. He loves to dance. He's got to dance."

Natsu was now standing behind Marco, hands on the rugby players chest as he hugged him from behind. They swayed gently, still in time with the upbeat tempo of the song. Marco interlocked his finger's with Natsu's, both men never once stopping the quiet singing of the song.

With a laugh, Marco raised both their hands and spun Natsu around, pulling him close so they were pressed against each other, gently swaying again. This time, they were looking directly into each other's eyes as they sung. Without a moment's hesitation, Marco slowly dipped Natsu close to the floor, never once breaking eye contact with his boyfriend as he smiled at him.

"I love to love. But my baby just loves to dance, yes he does!"

As the song ends, Marco leans down and kissed his boyfriend with as much love, passion and sincerity a kiss can portray.

 **-/-\\-**

"You really are the best."

With a slight yawn, Natsu collapsed onto the wicker sofa that decorated the small balcony of the apartment. He rested a tired head on his boyfriend's shoulder, who seemed equally exhausted by their dancing session that nearly lasted a full hour. The only reason it had ended was their upstairs neighbour shouting that he'd 'tear them a new asshole' if he heard one more Tina Charles song. The threat just made both men burst into laughter.

Now with the cool, evening air surrounding them, they relaxed. Natsu planted a small kiss on his boyfriend's lips, resting against the taller man with a satisfied sigh. Marco really did make this a magical evening.

"Second best. You exist, remember." Marco teased.

"Oh yeah, forgot. Guess you're second best then." Natsu grinned when Marco punched him on the shoulder gently.

"Well, maybe I can do something that'll put me on top."

Originally, Marco had planned to wait a little while before pulling out his final trick, but the moment felt right. And, by the looks of it, Natsu was going to fall asleep soon, so he didn't have long left until he couldn't do anything but tuck the other man in for the night.

Natsu watched as Marco walked back inside their apartment, opening both doors to the balcony as he did so. Too tired to stand up, he watched from the outdoor sofa as Marco picked up some things from their bedroom. He frowned when he saw a large projector in Marco's right hand, a laptop in his left. He placed both on the table beside the wicker sofa and hurried back into the house, setting up a projection screen right in front of the doors.

"Typically," Marco mumbled as he plugged his laptop into the projector. "A romantic date like this ends with a fireworks display. Even though I'm not a fan of fireworks, I still think you deserve them. So, I've made a compromise."

When he finished talking, Marco pressed play on a video he found. Projected onto the screen was a fast paced, colourful and beautiful firework display with quiet bangs accompanying each explosion, quiet enough that Marco didn't seem affected by it. At the romantic gesture, Natsu smiled softly at his boyfriend and cuddled up against him.

"Back on top again." He mumbled. "One hundred percent."

"Really? I have one more trick up my sleeve." Marco grinned.

He reached behind the back of the wicker chair and picked up two thin plastic bags. He showed them to Natsu, who immediately perked up when he realised what they were. Sparklers! He went from tiredness to bouncing on the seat in a matter of seconds, waiting for Marco to open the packet up and give him one.

"And, unless the packaging is lying, these work very well with phones. Which is why I've also got this."

Marco pulled out a selfie stick and fastened his phone in, opening his camera and lodging the stick in a place where both men were fully in shot. By the lack of hesitance in Marco leaving his phone essentially dangling over the edge of the balcony, Natsu assumed that he had practiced putting it there.

"You're not the best anymore." Natsu grinned. "You're god now. No, Jesus. Freckled Jesus."

"Freckled Jesus huh." Marco rolled his eyes. "Jean told you about that, did he."

"Second time we met. Been waiting ages to use it."

Chuckling again, Marco picked up a lighter and handed Natsu one of the sparklers. The drummer grinned and held it forward, ready for Marco to light it. When it erupted into crackling sparks, he beamed and began to swipe it around. The trail of orange in the dark, December sky made the drummer smile, shuffling back in the chair and creating an infinity sign in the air; it had to be done sooner or later.

As Marco pulled out a sparkler of his own and lit it, Marco began to line up his own sparkler with the fireworks projected on the screen. He tried making a kind of dot-to-dot out of the colourful explosions. The trail left was a little messy and haphazard, but the drummer was enjoying himself non-the-less.

When Marco at last lit his own sparkler, Natsu grinned and shifted his position so there was space on the sofa next to him. He patted the sofa with his free hand, grinning up at Marco until he finally sat down beside him.

"Heart or initials first? We have to do 'em both" Natsu demanded, smiling.

"Heart, I guess." Marco laughed, caught up in Natsu's enthusiasm.

Nodding in agreement, Natsu raised his arm and placed his sparkler in the air. Marco joined him, the two sparklers almost touching. After a countdown from Natsu, they both moved their hands so their sparklers made half of a heart. They didn't need to talk, instinctively managing to make their hands move at the same speed and end at the same place. The traces of an orange heart remained in the air, making them both smile softly.

Before they could start writing each other's initials in the sky, Natsu's sparkler burnt out. The drummer placed it in the water bucket that Marco had prepared, taking the sparkler off Marco while he lit another one. Marco's face being illuminated by the flickering flames really did make him looked beautiful. If it weren't for the sparkler he was holding, Natsu would be kissing him right now.

"Here." Marco smiled, swapping their sparklers around. "We doing each other's initials or our own?"

"Each other's." Natsu beamed. "Seems more romantic."

Marco nodded again, leaning back and looking at the camera. They both raised their sparklers and wrote the other man's first initial in the sky. After finishing the 'N' Marco carried on and drew a small heart around the letter. When he glanced over at Natsu, he realised that the drummer had a similar idea and had drew a smiling face.

They smiled at each other again, leaning back on the chair and making mindless squiggles in the sky. Natsu leant against Marco's shoulder with another yawn, the high of the sparklers slowly dying down and being replaced by tiredness.

"Wanna draw one more thing before we go to bed?" Marco suggested, Natsu nodding. "Your choice."

"A dick." Natsu grinned, cackling at the reaction he got. "What? You totally wanna see a huge, majestic fire dick in the sky. Admit it."

"I could set you on fire and throw you out of the window if I want that." Marco grinned.

"Hey." Natsu whined, before an idea hit him. "We should do a parachute jump next year. That'd be really cool. Can we?"

"I-I'm not really sure. I'm not _that_ good with heights." Marco smiled apologetically, Natsu shrugging. It wasn't for everyone. "Maybe bungee jump, I think I'll be okay as long as I'm attached to a rope or something."

Marco grinned widely when he heard that. He dropped his sparkler in the bucket, extinguishing it immediately. He leant over to his freckled boyfriend and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, kissing his cheek and staying there. Marco relaxed against him, kissing his forehead as he aimlessly drew lined with his barely lit sparkler.

"Love you, Marco."

"Love you too, Natsu."

As they kissed again, the sparkler extinguished.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Grand Conclusion

**Chapter Four - The Grand Conclusion**

"You know what we discussed, right Natsu?"

Natsu grinned widely, eyes not leaving the brunettes face as he lifted the knife. He wasn't going to do it, of course he wasn't. But there was no harm in pretending he would for a little while to annoy Marco. To annoy his _husband!_

Both men were standing at a three-tiered chocolate cake, both were wearing extravagant red suits and both were beaming from ear to ear. It was impossible to be even slightly sad around the two of them, they were radiating positivity and literally glowing. And they had every right to be doing so, less than an hour ago they were saying their vows in a large church in front of all their closest friends and relatives.

Taking the knife, Natsu cut out a slice of the cake and carefully lifted it up. Despite the urge to stuff it into Marco's face, he knew that feeding the cake to your new spouse was a wedding tradition and Marco was a traditional guy; hence why he wasn't going to shove it into his face like Marco expected. His grin turning to a smile, he brought the slice of luxurious cake to his husband's lips and fed it to him, eyes shining when he saw just how happy Marco looked. He wanted to kiss him so badly, but he resisted when Marco took the knife and cut him a slice of the cake. Natsu licked his lips subconsciously, it looked delicious.

He stopped licking his lips when the cake was smeared across his face, the crowd laughing at Natsu's dumbfounded reaction. He gaped at the other man, cake covering his mouth and cheeks.

"I knew you'd be sad if nobody got cake on their face." Marco was grinning mischievously. Natsu's stomach swelled in pride.

"Guess you're right." He chuckled, sliding his finger across the cake and licking it. It tasted good. "Love ya, freckles."

"Love you two, Sparkler."

Despite the cake on Natsu's face, the two leaned towards each other and shared a short, loving kiss. Natsu sniggered when they pulled apart, some of the cake had transferred onto Marco's face. So now they both looked like idiots, which was more than fine for them both.

After being given napkins by the waiters so they could clean themselves off, they began to walk back to the large table at the head of the room. As they walked past the closest of their friends and family, they received words of congratulations, tearful smiles from Marco's mother and clasps on the back from a couple of their friends. Both men rubbed their lower backs at the stinging sensation from the latter form of congratulations, sitting Reiner next to Laxus _may_ have been a mistake.

They took their places at the middle of the table, intertwining their fingers under the table and out of sight from the crowd. Their rings were resting against each other, incrusted red diamonds sparkling under the light of the chandelier. They smiled at each other as the band began to play again.

Watching as their friend's dances, talked and enjoyed themselves, both men were extremely happy. After three years of dating and one year of being engaged, both men couldn't imagine the day being any better. The wedding ceremony itself had been small, in a tiny vintage church with only the closest people they knew in attendance. It had been heartfelt, honest and filled with so much love it was almost palpable. The reception was louder and had everyone they considered a friend, all of whom seemed happy with the festivities. Even Natsu's band, who had insisted that they should play the song to their first dance, seemed to be getting into the atmosphere. It was perfect and had been going exactly how they'd wanted it.

"You look lost in thought." Marco hummed quietly to Natsu, who smiled.

"Just wondering if this is the best day of my life. So far, I think it is."

"So far?" Marco tilted his head slightly. A cute idiosyncrasy that he'd picked up from Natsu.

"We've got a lot more days to spend together, Freckles. We're both pretty awesome, who knows how awesome our life's gonna be tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess so." Marco smiled, leaning on Natsu's shoulder in tiredness. "Tomorrow does have an advantage over today, I guess. I didn't wake up next to my husband, I will tomorrow."

"Unless I'm takin' a wizz when you wake up." Natsu cackled, receiving a punch on the shoulder for his joke. "I'll hold it, just in case."

Natsu tilted his head so it was resting on Marco's, both men calmly watching as events unfolded around them. It had been quite a long day and they were both tired, so they were going to take a break before they started to mingle with everyone. Marco let out a small yawn, eyes blinking slowly as Natsu patted his leg in comfort. The freckled man carefully raised his hand and began to inspect his ring. He had chosen to have a red diamond, it reminded him of Natsu and it made him ecstatic that he could finally wear it.

They stayed in their own world for quite some time, only breaking out of it when somebody came to speak to them and congratulate them on their marriage. Their fingers were still intertwined, unwilling to let each other out of their grasp.

Too involved in their own world and occasionally talking to people, they didn't notice Jean and Gray leave the groomsman's table and walk over towards the band. A few of the guests watched with curiosity as Jean spoke to the singer and Gray pulled out what looked like a projector and plugged a laptop into it. Moments later, the projector was flickering against the wall, Jean and Gray were standing beside it and the band ended their song.

"Please, remain silent for the speech of the best men."

Marco and Natsu perked up at that, looking towards where Gray and Jean were standing. They'd decided that they'd both have a best man and two grooms-maids. Marco had picked Jean, Sasha and Annie. Natsu had picked Gray, Lucy and Erza.

"Hey, everyone, I'm Gray, Natsu's best man. This is Jean, Marco's best man."

"Hi." Jean smiled. "So, if you haven't noticed already, there's more than one groom here. Meaning there's more than one best man."

"And I think everyone knows what the job of the best man is." Gray smirked. "To embarrass the groom. And because there's twice the grooms and twice the best men, that means four times the embarrassment, right."

Natsu and Marco shared a worried, excited glance. They had known that picking Gray and Jean as their best men would lead to an interesting speech at the dinner, but their overconfidence and the ominous looking projector filled the newlyweds with a sense of dread. At the sound of the laughing coming from the crowd, they both realised that they wouldn't be coming out of this room with a shred of dignity.

They both grinned at their best men. They were sending both permission and a challenge.

"Now, we've both been looking forward to doing this speech for a while." Jean smiled. "It gives me the chance bring out all the juicy blackmail I've accumulated. And because he's in front of everyone he cares about, he won't risk showing his true evil side and killing me." A chuckle spread across the room, Marco shaking his head slightly with a grin.

"And it'll give me a chance to speak in front of Natsu for more than one sentence without being interrupted." Gray smirked. "Not that Natsu's loud, though, he was looking at loud in the rear-view mirror when he was a baby." Another laugh. "Speaking of which."

Gray clicked a button on a small remote he was holding. The projector shot to life and a large picture appeared on the wall, laughter filling the room much louder than before. It was a picture of Natsu as a baby, wearing a diaper and covered from head to toe with spaghetti bolognese, a red bowl resting on his head and a confused expression on his young face. Natsu's eyes widened and he turned to Igneel, who was physically biting his knuckle to stop himself from laughing.

"I thought your got rid of that!" he whispered with a pout.

"I did." Igneel chuckled. "I gave it to Gray."

"It's cute." Marco smiled, squeezing Natsu's hand comfortingly.

They looked back to Gray and Jean, who had yet to speak as the laughter hadn't died down yet. Even Marco had joined in quietly, receiving a pout from and a 'wait until it's your turn' from his husband. Marco opened his mouth to say how Jean had no embarrassing pictures of him, but when he saw his parents avoiding his eyes he decided against it. He'd just have to enjoy the time focused on Natsu.

"For those who know Natsu quite well, you'll realise his table manners haven't improved that much either." Another raucous laugh at Natsu's expense. The drummer kept quiet, knowing if he fought back Gray would mention the cake he'd had on his face less than an hour ago.

"But it's not just Natsu who seems to have had issues with food when he was younger, as you can see." Jean grinned, Gray clicking his remote again.

Projected on the wall was now a video. Natsu immediately recognised it as Marco's parents' house, which was evidently his childhood home as well. In the middle of the video was a large cake with eight candles stuck inside of it. The cake was slowly approaching a young boy covered in freckled, wearing a paper hat and an '8 TODAY' badge to the sound of Happy Birthday To You. Natsu grinned at the sight of the young Marco. Marco, however, was cringing when he realised exactly what this video was.

"Oh damnit."

The scene seemed to be a regular home video of a child's birthday, nothing embarrassing other than the image of a young smiling Marco. That changed when the family dog got under the feet of Marco's dad, causing him to drop the cake on the floor. Marco's mum immediately went to comfort the young Marco, saying they could get another one. But Marco didn't seem put off by the face the cake had splattered on the floor. He jumped off the chair and sat beside he dog, who was licking up the food. He took a big dollop of cake in his hands, much to his parent's shock, and shoved it in his mouth. He continued to do this until the camera shut off and the video ended.

Natsu, with possibly the widest grin on his face, turned to the cringing Marco. His freckled husband had often teased him about his eating habits. That ended now!

"Now, obviously we can't spend all day mocking the happy couple's weird diets." Gray smirked.

"Like the fact both of us, on separate occasions, have walked in on them eating stale bread with grated cheese and dipped in tomato ketchup. A 'meal' they both claim is 'just as good as pizza.'"

Natsu avoided the look of annoyance and confusion he got from his dad. His dad who owned an Italian restaurant.

"So, we've come up with a theme for our speech." Gray's grin ruined to a smile. "I think we all agree that those two are pretty perfect for each other. So, we'll be telling you just how perfect the two of them are for you."

"You all probably know that Marco is a pretty big force on a rugby pitch. A true sportsman through and through." Marco blushed a little at Jean's praise. "But you might not know is that Natsu used to be pretty involved in sports too. In fact, he's responsible for the ten-week winning streak of his high-school's football team."

"Yeah." Gray spoke. "After he was kicked out the victories just kept coming."

Natsu glared at Gray, wishing what he had said was a lie. But it was the truth, Natsu and football weren't a combination made in heaven. When Marco looked at him with a smile at the teasing, Natsu shrugged good heartedly. He didn't care about the teasing really, it was just a bit of fun. And when Gray eventually got married, his revenge would be sweet!

"They don't only love playing sports, though, they also love watching them." Jean spoke up again. "In fact, you couldn't drag them away from the TV during the Olympics last year. This might shock you, but one sport in particular got their attention. It was the diving. Now, I wonder why they liked diving so much? What about diving could have possibly got these young, gay men so interested in the sport?"

"Well maybe it was the elegance of the sport." Gray teased. "Maybe it was the scandal about the colour of the water. Or maybe, just maybe, it was this."

Gray pressed the button on the remote again a short montage was projected onto the wall. Every picture contained a young, attractive swimmer wearing nothing but a speedo. Both men averted their eyes, blushing. They both did love the sport, but nobody would believe them if they tried to defend themselves.

"I guess we'll never know." Gray shrugged, electing loud laughter. "But it's not just sports they have in common. They're also both very creative. In fact, they're both pretty good artists."

"Yeah, we've managed to find a picture that Natsu drew of Marco."

On the wall now was a sketch of Marco's face. Natsu wouldn't consider himself a good artist by any stretch and only really drew when he got bored, but the drawing was of a high quality and it was obvious that this was Marco. Natsu felt a little bit of pride when nobody laughed at it, somebody clapped and Marco gave him a small kiss on the cheek.

"And in return for such great art, Marco decided to make Natsu a cake in his likeness." Jean smirked again.

The drawing of Marco was then replaced with a cake with a face on it. Although, calling it a face was somewhat of an exaggeration. The skin and hair were made of the same icing, so you couldn't tell the difference; the eyes were completely different sizes, one lacking a pupil; the teeth were disjointed and huge; and, in place of a nose, was a jelly strawberry.

Marco shook his head with a laugh at the sight of the cake. It certainly hadn't turned out as well as he'd hoped, but it tasted fantastic and it had caused a lot of laughter between the two. He didn't care about the laughing coming from the crowd.

"I think he got it pretty close." Gray grinned. "Let's compare, shall we."

Beside the picture of a cake appeared a picture of Natsu. It was completely photoshopped to make it look as close to the cake as humanly possible, even down to a jelly strawberry being shoddily places on top of his nose. The laughter was louder than before, Natsu being the loudest contributor; going so far as the bang his hand on the table at the sight of his defaced face.

"But if you want to see their true talents in creativity, you don't have to look further than Halloween of last year." Jean smiled to the crowd that was still chuckling. "These are costumes that they had made themselves after not being happy with what the costume store had on sale."

Now projected was a picture of them in their Halloween costumes. They had dressed up as a modern angel and devil. Marco was wearing white skinny jeans, a white shirt, a white coat that followed around his legs and gave the effect as if it were constantly bellowing in the wind thanks to some wire work. He even had made some fantastic looking wings. Natsu wore town, black studded and ripped skinny jeans, a pair of combat boots, a red leather jacket covered in spikes and some homemade horns nestles in his hair. His bare torso was painted with scales, his face covered in black lines and scars. They both looked the part.

"We can all agree that they look pretty damn amazing, as they do today." Jean smiled. "Which is why this might shock you. Here's a look at what you can find them wearing on a normal day."

Replacing the picture of them in the costumes was a picture of them lounging around on their sofa, both wearing sweatpants and hoodies. Another picture came up, only with different hoodies and sweatpants. Then another. Then another.

"We've got quite a lot of these pictures, but I think you all get the point." Gray grinned, pressing the button on the remote multiple times. He had gone past at least ten more pictures until he was done. "They also sometimes wear those clothes in bed if they can't be bothered to change. So next time you see either of them in the streets, thank yourself lucky that they're wearing anything that doesn't smell like a bed."

Both newlyweds sniggered at the reveal; they found those kind of clothes comfortable so why shouldn't they wear them around the apartment. Marco's sniggering stopped and Natsu's got louder when Marco's mom reached over and slapped Marco on the bicep, claiming she didn't raise such a scruffy boy.

"Despite everything we've listed off, there's one thing that really makes these two perfect for each other. Their shared love of music." Gray smiled.

"Yeah, they story of how they met centres around music." Jean joined in. "If you don't know, Marco's a little bit scared of fireworks. So, when he was forced into being a guest at a bonfire nights celebration, it's understandable that he wasn't looking forward to it. But fate, it seemed, was working that night and wanted Marco to enjoy himself, so it sent him Natsu."

"We won't go into detail, because the happy couple themselves are the masters of this story, so I'll just tell you the important part." Gray said, smiling at the couple. "Throughout the entirety of the thirty-minute fireworks display, Natsu played the drums constantly so Marco could focus on the rhythm of the songs he knew and wouldn't be bothered by the fireworks. I don't know if there's any drummers in the room, but playing for that long without any breaks is incredibly impressive."

"But I think what really shows how they were meant for each other is something Gray told me when we were writing this speech. Apparently Natsu had been excited to watch the display and had been talking about it for weeks." Marco's eyes shot towards Matsu. He didn't know that. "But he gave up watching it without a second thought to help out a stranger. Anyone who knows Marco knows he would have done the same thing. If that doesn't make them a match made in heaven then nothing will."

As the crowed 'awed' and applauded Natsu, Marco turned to him and spoke in a lowered voice. "Why didn't you tell me you wanted to watch, I wouldn't have minded."

"I know. But fireworks happen once a year at least. For all I knew, I might never have seen you again." Natsu smiled widely. "Besides, I kinda saw fireworks, just a different kind."

"What d'you mean?"

"Well, fireworks are beautiful speckles in the sky, another beautiful backdrop, with loud volume." Natsu grinned. "Your freckles are beautiful speckles to me, thought so back then too. Your face is a beautiful backdrop for the freckles, and pretty much everything else. And the drumming was pretty loud, right. Sounds like fireworks to me."

"You… you… How did I manage to find someone like you? Idiot."

"You got scared of ya face, apparently." Natsu grinned, smiling when Marco cupped his face and kissed him slowly. He chuckled into the kiss when Marco punched him on the shoulder.

Gray and Jean waited for the two to finish their small exchange, grinning at each other as the two flirted. When their kiss ended, the both looked over to their best men, seemingly more relaxed than before. They must have thought that the embarrassing part of the speech was over, which was insane! They had a final trick up their sleeves and it was the most embarrassing thing they'd found on the two men.

"But that isn't the only time music has been important in their lives together." Jean started up again. "In fact, for their third date they had decided to go to a karaoke bar."

"And luckily for us, and more importantly for you all, the management of the karaoke bar has flexible morals." Gray chuckled. "Because if he didn't then we wouldn't have been able to bribe him and get this delightful video. So, with their debut single, Marco Buttocks and Natsu Applepeel. And tonight, they'll be singing the classic anthem, The Bohemian Rhapsody."

The newlyweds both shared a worried glance. Despite it being years ago, they could both remember that night vividly. They could also remember how they'd made complete and total asses of themselves in front of everyone who was at the bar at that time. And, apparently, in front of everyone at their wedding.

As the video began and showed the walking onto the stage. Both men slumped down in their chairs so they could hide away from their embarrassment.

Over the next six minutes, the room was filled with raucous and loud laughter from almost everyone in the ballroom. Both men had forgotten just how loud they had sung and their failed attempts at dancing that occurred from time to time. Half way through the song, Marco had his head in his hands and Natsu was chuckling to stop himself from cringing. By the end of their song, both men were blushing madly and silently vowing their revenge on their best friends. Revenge they would perform together, as a married couple.

That fact made them somewhat more accepting of their situation.

"But, putting aside all the joking, I think we can all agree that those idiots are pretty damn perfect for each other." Jean smiled. "I can't speak for Natsu, but I know that Marco has been a lot happier since they got together, and I'm sure that Natsu's one hundred percent responsible."

"The same goes for Natsu. Those two really do make one hell of a couple and, even though it's a cliché, they really complete each other." Gray smiled, picking up a crystal champagne glass. "and I think a couple like this, with so much happiness and love for each other, comes along so rarely and it's exactly the world needs right now. And we wish you all the luck in the world."

"So please, join us in toasting the marriage of the two men who deserve happiness more than anyone else." Jean raised his glass. "To Marco and Natsu."

The entire room raised their glasses.

"To Marco and Natsu."

 **-/-\\-**

"Been a long day, huh." Natsu chuckled when he noticed Marco yawn.

"Yeah, but a good day." Marco smiled. "A great day, actually."

The two men were in the middle of the ballroom, arms wrapped around each other as the band played Gravity by Embrace, the song they had chosen as 'Their song.' They slowly swayed on the dancefloor, the guests who hadn't needed to leave already watching them as they danced their first dance.

"Better be, we only got one shot at this. Unless…"

"I don't think our wallets could handle another one, Natsu." Marco chuckled. "Besides, I can't imagine anything could be better than this."

"Yeah, I guess this is kinda perfect." Natsu smiled, resting his head on Marco's shoulder with the softest of smiles.

As the song progressed, more coupled began to populate the dancefloor and joined them in their gentle swaying. From over Marco's shoulder, Natsu could see Marco's mum and dad slowly begin to dance to the soft rhythm. Marco himself watched as Jean and Freed began to sway in each other's arms, whispering to one another with the same smiled they had worn on their own wedding day. Both newlyweds closed their eyes, their world becoming mothing but each other and the soft song echoing around the room.

Sadly, however, the song couldn't go on forever. As the singer sung his final note and the band faded out their instruments, a soft clapping filled the room and the two men were forced to pull away, still smiling at each other.

Before the band could play their next song, Marco placed his forehead on his husbands and gently whispered. "You still remember the day we met, right?"

"Course." Natsu spoke in an equally soft voice.

"Then do you remember what song I wanted you to play, but you didn't know it?"

"Run boy run, right. You were a hipster." Natsu chuckled.

"Right, I guess I was." Marco chuckled. "Well, Jean and Gray were right, I think we do complete each other. And I think I should start doing that now, by filling in that hole in your repertoire."

When Marco pulled away, Natsu frowned. He watched as the drummer of the band they'd hired walked over and handed Marco the drumsticks. Natsu's face turned from that of confusion to an astonished expression of wide eyes. That, too, was replaced quickly when a wide grin cracked Natsu's face.

Before his husband could say anything, Marco began to drag Natsu over to the stage the band were set up on. The band had left the stage and pushed the drumkit to the middle of the stage, putting it right in the centre so everyone could focus on it. When Marco sat on the leather stool, he performed the exact same five second warm up that Natsu did to test out the distance of the drums; he managed to pull it off at exactly the same tempo!

"You might wanna wear these. Don't wanna hurt your ears, do you?"

From under the stool, Marco pulled out some noise cancelling headphones. They were the exact same ones that he had leant Marco on the day they met. Natsu gawped as he took them from Marco. He'd replaced these years ago for a better-quality model, Marco claimed he had tossed these away. Had he been planning this for so long?

After sliding his old headphones on, Natsu stood behind Marco in the same way the freckled man had done so many years ago. Before Marco could start playing, Natsu leant down and planted a kiss on his head. Marco smiled, slamming the sticks together in a countdown.

Natsu had no idea who had been teaching Marco to play, but they must have been good because Marco was flawless. He didn't miss a beat by a millisecond, capturing every manic beat of the song he had previously been obsessed with.

Both men were lost in the music, Natsu closing his eyes and banging his head in time with the song. His left hand was tapping against his leg, fingers slamming against his thigh in correlation with every slam on the drums. He opened his eyes and looked down at his husband, rolling his eyes with a chuckle when he saw Marco's lips moving in time with the lyrics. He was singing under his breath, obviously not wanting to be heard. Natsu wasn't going to have that. Not at all.

Without a second thought, Natsu began to belt out the lyrics to the well-known song. His voice just managed to be louder than the drumming, making Marco and the rest of the room hear him. The freckled man smiled. He raised the volume of his singing to match Natsu's.

Slowly, members of the crowd who also could remember the lyrics to the song began to join in. In no time at all, the room was filled with the singing of over half the crowd belting at the top of their voices and Marco's expert drumming. Natsu wrapped his arms around Marco's neck as the song began to end, pressing his lips onto the back of Marco's neck, nuzzling him until the song finally came to an end. The sound of singing and drumming was replaced by the cheering and clapping from most people in the room.

As Marco turned around to look at Natsu, the drummer removed his headphones and pressed his forehead on Marco's. He was smiling again, soft and loving.

"God you're amazing." Natsu whispered. "I really love ya, you know that. Love you so much."

"I love you too." Marco smiled. "But if you only love me for my drum skills, we might have a problem. That's kinda the only song I know. Heh."

"Only song you need to know." Natsu whispered again, pressing his lips onto Marco's for a moment. Marco returned the favour. "Best song in the world now."

"Is it that good you'll forgive me for stealing your drumsticks for the last couple of months." Marco laughed, wrapping his arms around Natsu's waist when he received a gentle punch on the shoulder.

"Knew it was you hiding 'em." Natsu grinned slightly, still whispering. "You better tell Gray. He yelled at me because of that."

"That's weird, he was the one teaching me." Marco laughed.

"Bastard." Was mumbled into his neck.

The freckled man slowly moved his hands from around Natsu's waist to around his shoulders, bringing him closer until they could kiss passionately. Their tongues practically danced together as they pulled each other closer, eyes closing in the same comfort and relaxation that they always felt when the kissed. But there was one difference now; this wasn't the comfort caused by a boyfriend or a finance. No, this was the comfort only their husbands could offer them.

They slowly parted, panting at the effort they had been putting into their kiss. They both chuckled and looked at each other's eyes, ignoring the rest of the room. From now on, their world truly would be only one another.

"I love you, Natsu Bodt."

"I love you too, Marco Dragneel."


End file.
